NEW DELHI: The admission by CBI on Friday that it had no evidence against Rajesh Talwar in the twin murders despite a 49-day detention provides the Noida dentist ample ground for seeking compensation and holding his tormentors to account.

(Times View: Media, cops need to do some soul-searching) Given the calumny inflicted upon him with a succession of sleaze stories surrounding his daughter Aarushi's murder, lawyers feel that the Noida police, which arrested Talwar on May 23, and to a lesser extent CBI, which took over the case on June 1, will have a lot of explaining to do if Talwar decides to seek legal remedy. The doctor will have several options for redressal once he is formally discharged from the case, which is likely to happen after CBI submits its chargesheet.

He can file a civil defamation suit for damages or initiate criminal defamation proceedings. He could, on the other hand, file a writ petition before the Allahabad high court for blatant violation of his fundamental rights. Mental agony, loss of reputation and character assasination are some of the settled grounds on which courts usually decide such cases and the plight suffered by Talwar covers all these grounds, explain lawyers.

Talwar was also a victim of malicious prosecution and his plea for compensation or damages has a good chance of succeeding in courts, they say. Counsel seeks departmental action against Noida cops With the CBI admitting on Friday that they had no evidence against Dr Rajesh Talwar, the dentist's legal advisor, Pinaki Mishra, was relieved that his client finally stood in the clear and sought departmental action, even "removal from service" of Noida police officials responsible for Talwar's arrest. "In India there is no remedy against police excesses.

The option of approaching courts comes into play only after he is discharged. We hope it doesn't come to that and police brass take action against the errant officers now that CBI has given my client a clean chit," Mishra said. Senior advocate K T S Tulsi, while welcoming Talwar's release, hoped the state would compensate the beleaguered father rather than wait for a court order to get moving. "It is very rare for an investigating agency to accept its mistake, I compliment CBI for that. Usually, mistakes like these take a long time to correct and by then the damage has been done.

Talwar is a dentist, an educated person and his greatest asset - his reputation - is in tatters. So, reparation should be done by the state itself which should step forward and show magnanimity," Tulsi said, adding that such an act would spare Talwar the need to invest afresh in legal remedies. Recalling the recent case of Delhi school teacher Uma Khurana, who was put behind bars as a result of a fake sting operation only to be later released, criminal lawyer Tarun Goomber was of the view that courts would take a favourable view of such blatant excess by the cops.

"Even though it was a section of media which was repsonsible for Khurana's plight, HC took suo motu cognizance and stepped in. Talwar's is a case where the cops have been put in the dock, so to say, by CBI and he has every reason to believe he was maliciously prosecuted."